Friday, October 16, 2015

The Washington Capitals conclude their four-game
season-opening home stand when they host the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday
night. Capitals fans will be forgiven
for wondering which team will show up for this contest, what with having
dispatched the New Jersey Devils by a 5-3 margin in the season opener, looking
like lost puppies in the rain in a 5-0 shutout at the hands of the San Jose
Sharks, and then dismantling the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago
Blackhawks on Thursday by a 4-1 margin.

As for the Hurricanes, no one thought they would be very
good, and in the early going they are performing beneath expectations. Carolina will bring an 0-3-0 record into this
game, getting outscored by a 10-5 margin in the process. Their power play is weak (1-for-13/7.7
percent), their one goal coming in the final three seconds of a 4-2 loss to the
Detroit Red Wings. Their penalty kill is
average (6-for-7/85.7 percent), owing what success it has to the few instances
in which it has been called upon. At
even strength, the Hurricanes have been outscored, 9-4, and an 0.44 5-on-5
goals-for to goals-against ratio is not a foundation for success.

Only one Hurricane player has more than one point through
three games. That would be Justin Faulk
(1-2-3), who is likely to be one of the very few bright spots this season on
which Carolina can build going forward.
Still just 23 years old, Faulk has 265 games of NHL experience in his
pocket, and he is growing into a minutes-eater.
He has averaged almost 24 minutes per game over his career to date and
is averaging 25:57 in three games so far this season (fifth among defensemen in
the league). Faulk is first in his 2010
draft class among defensemen in career goals (34) and second in points (121, to
Cam Fowler with 150). He is 2-6-8, even,
in 18 career games against Washington.

If Faulk is an up-and-comer for the Hurricanes, Eric Staal
represents the other end of the spectrum. He is by far the dean of the club in
terms of service. His 849 games played
with the club is by far the most (no other current Hurricane has played as many
as 350 games with the team), and he is the fifth-oldest player on the roster at
age 30 (he will turn 31 at the end of this month). More to the point, Staal has a lot of fine
memories with the club, including a Stanley Cup championship in 2006, but with
the Hurricanes in rebuilding mode and Staal’s contract expiring with the club
at the end of this season, his greatest value might be what he can fetch in
return from a trade next February.

To say that Staal is in decline would not be completely
fair, given the team around him the past few years, but his production is
trending in that direction. From 53
points in 48 games three seasons ago (1.10 points per game) to 61 in 79 games two
seasons ago (0.77) to 54 in 77 games last season (0.70), it is a downward
pointing arrow for which he might need a change of scenery to reverse.

What Staal has been against the Caps is a reliable
point-per-game producer overall (68 points in 68 career games). But even here
there have been signs of slowing down.
He was 2-0-2 in four games against Washington last season and did not
record a goal in five games against the Caps the previous year (he did have
five assists). What he does not yet have
in three games so far this season is a point at 5-on-5. He scored late in the Hurricanes’ 2-1 loss to
the Nashville Predators in the season opener, but that goal came with Carolina
goalie Cam Ward pulled for a sixth attacker.

Speaking of Cam Ward, here is another player who might be
worth more at auction than in the lineup.
A Stanley Cup-winning veteran, like Staal, Ward has never really come all
that close to fulfilling the promise that early career championship suggested. In
nine seasons since, Ward has never had a goals against average lower than 2.40
(last season,18th in the league among goalies appearing in at least 41 games,
but his career best), nor has he had more than one season with a save
percentage above .920, that lone season coming in 2010-2011 (.923).

Further, Ward has not been much of a minutes-eater as number
one goaltenders go. Only four times in
his career has he appeared in more than 60 games, and only six times has he
logged more than 3,000 minutes. He has
appeared in two games so far, allowing six goals on 44 shots (3.08/.864) in two
losses. Against the Caps, Ward is
16-13-4, 2.60, .919, with four shutouts over his career.

Here is how the teams compare in their numbers from last
season:

1. Carolina is coming
to Washington to play the back-half of back-to-back games, flying in from
Detroit after their Friday night game.
Since Cam Ward is expected to start that game against the Red Wings, the
goaltending duties could fall to Eddie Lack in the Saturday night contest in
Washington. Lack was obtained from
Vancouver in trade at the NHL draft last June for a pair of draft picks. The native of Sweden is 34-31-9, 2.44, .916,
with six shutouts in 83 career appearances in the NHL. He is 0-1-0, 4.10, .810 in one appearance
against Washington, a 4-3 loss to the Caps in March 2014.

2. Jeff Skinner, he
of the widely circulated and always amusing tantrum against the Caps in November
2011…

…is now the second-longest tenured Hurricane player with 339
games played. At the age of 23.

3. Jordan Staal is
something of an interesting case when it comes to, of all things, postseason
awards. In six seasons with the
Pittsburgh Penguins, he earned votes in each season for the Selke Trophy as the
league’s top defensive forward, twice placing in the top-ten and once as high
as third. In his first season with Carolina,
he finished 29th in Selke voting, and in the three years since…crickets. Has he
gotten worse, or was the voting a product of the quality of team around
him?

4. Carolina is second
in the league – not second-worst, second in the league – in Corsi-for
percentage at 5-on-5 (57.5 percent, just behind Los Angeles with 58.1). In close-score situations, though, that
number drops to 52.9 (numbers from war-on-ice.com). Still good (10th in the league), but you can see trouble
in the future.

5. Carolina has not
received the goaltending it needs in recent years. They have not had a goalie play in at least
half the team’s games and finish with a save percentage above .910 since Cam
Ward posted a .915 save percentage in 68 games in 2011-2012. It looks as if they will struggle to do it
this year, too. Neither Ward nor Eddie
Lack are above .900 so far.

1. The four-game home
stand to open the season ties for the longest such home stand to open a season
in Capitals history, matching a four-game home stand to open the 1980-1981
season (the Caps went 2-1-1 in the days when they had ties).

2. Alex Ovechkin has
as many goals as Troy Brouwer. Bet this
is the last time this season we type that sentence.

3. Alex Ovechkin has
as many goals as Matt Niskanen. See
previous item.

4. The Caps already
have four defensemen with points. Not
bad considering last season they had eight, and two of them were traded for one
another (Jack Hillen for Tim Gleason).

5. Washington is 23rd
in Corsi-for percentage in close-score situations (46.2), just ahead of
Arizona (numbers from war-on-ice.com). They can do better.

The Peerless’ Players to Ponder

Carolina: Noah Hanifin

Through Thursday’s games, Carolina defenseman Noah Hanifin
is one of just five players taken in the 2015 NHL draft last June to dress for
an NHL game so far this season and the only defenseman to do so. He has not exactly been babied in his
introduction the NHL, averaging more than 17 minutes a game in the early
going. It has been a quick rise for the
rookie, having gone from St. Sebastian’s High School in 2012-2013 to the US
National Team Development program the following season, to the Boston College
Eagles last season, to the NHL this season.
Hanifin recorded his first NHL point – an assist on Carolina’s first
goal – in the Hurricanes’ 4-3 loss to Detroit last Saturday. Hanafin is the youngest defenseman in the
league (almost a full year younger than Florida’s Aaron Ekblad) and will be
making his first appearance in Washington.

Washington: Brooks Laich

There are 13 Capitals with points through the team’s first
three games. Of the eight who do not,
there are names you expect to see – rookie Chandler Stephenson (who has played
in just one game), fourth liner Michael Latta, new guys Taylor Chorney and Sean
Collins. One name there is just
disappointing – Brooks Laich. Sure, it
is early, and there are a lot of guys in the league without a point in their
first few games, some of them quite well known.

Still, after spending so much time over the past several
seasons trying to rehabilitate himself from a chronic groin problem, fans are
anxious to see Laich return to something resembling the player he was a half
dozen years ago. It is hard to do
getting fourth-line minutes (he is 10th of 14 forwards in ice time per game),
but getting contributions from Laich going forward are going to be helpful in
whatever success the Caps enjoy this season.
It might be that he does it purely as a defensive forward (he is leading
the team in penalty killing ice time).
You do what you have to do, and in Laich’s case it might not show up in
the production numbers. He has had some success against Carolina, going 9-9-18
in 50 career games.

In the end…

The Caps have alternated good and bad games out of the
gate. If the pattern holds, they would lay
an egg at center ice against the Hurricanes.
Carolina has been doing nothing but that so far, though. They have yet to score first in a game, they
have yet to take a lead into the first intermission. The Hurricanes have trailed at the second
intermission in all three games to date.

That brings us back once more to the whole “sticking to the
script” idea. Line 17 in the script
says, “no taking bad teams lightly” (okay, we made that up). And, Carolina can score, at least on paper, with
the Brothers Staal, Justin Faulk, and Jeff Skinner in the lineup. What the Caps should not lack for in this
game, even if Nicklas Backstrom’s season debut is put off another game, is
offense. Carolina’s goaltending and
defensive depth just is not very impressive.
That should make for an early evening for the competitive portion of the
game, so long as the script is being stuck to…or however you’re supposed to end
that sentence.

If the Caps played out a dark fantasy of life without Alex
Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom on Tuesday in their 5-0 shutout loss to the San
Jose Sharks, they displayed what makes them bona fide contenders for a
championship this season in their 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on
Thursday night.

The Caps were skilled, balanced, focused, and steady. It started early, even before T.J. Oshie
opened the scoring mid-way through the first period. The Caps outshot the Blackhawks, 6-0, before
Oshie lit the lamp for his first goal as a Capital at the 8:48 mark. With Viktor Tikhonov in the penalty box for
an interference call, the Caps needed just 17 seconds to covert the power play
opportunity. Playing the “axle” spot in
the Caps’ 1-3-1 formation, Oshie one-timed an Evgeny Kuznetsov pass from the
right wing wall past goalie Scott Darling, and the Caps were off and running.

Chicago picked up the offensive pace in the second period,
but it was John Carlson who would score the period’s first and only goal. Taking a Stan Galiev pass at the blue line
with his back to the net, Carlson spun and fired a long-range shot that beat
Darling on the long side past his blocker.

Matt Niskanen gave the Caps a 3-0 lead early in the third
period when he took advantage of the Blackhawks paying too close attention to
Marcus Johansson circling out from behind the Chicago net. Niskanen filled in the high slot, Johansson
found him, and Niskanen buried the shot to give the Caps a three-goal lead.

Chicago got that one back barely a minute after the Caps’
goal celebration ended, courtesy of Viktor Svedberg, but that would be as close
as the visitors would get. Alex Ovechkin
rounded out the scoring when he snapped a shot from a near-impossible angle at
the Chicago goal line off a Kuznetsov feed to make it a happy night for Caps
fans.

Other stuff…

-- As prolific a goal scorer as Alex Ovechkin is, this is
the first time he recorded goals in the first two games he played since 2012-2013. He finished that abbreviated season with 32
goals in 48 games (a 55-goal pace).

-- Oshie scores, Ovechkin scores, two goals from
defensemen. But don’t forget the two
primary assists from Evgeny Kuznetsov, who looked at home in that spot in the
middle of the top line.

-- Marcus Johansson is quietly putting together a nice start
to the season. A game-winning goal in the opener and two assists in this game.

-- Unlike Tuesday night, the Caps jumped on Chicago
early. At 5-on-5 they had 20 shot
attempts in the first period to nine for the Blackhawks.

-- With the Caps holding the most dangerous lead in hockey –
a two-goal lead – they held the Blackhawks without a shot on goal for 7:34 late
in the third period, adding Ovechkin’s goal during that span to seal the
outcome.

-- Tom Wilson continues to impress in the early going as a
more rounded player. He did not record a
point in this game, but in 16:35 in ice time he had three shots on goal, three
hits, two blocked shots, and no fights.

-- Chandler Stephenson dressed for his first NHL game. While his baptism was short (nine shifts –
fewest on the team – and 8:43 in ice time), he won five of six faceoffs.

-- John Carlson is certainly getting the chance to expand
his role with the departure of Mike Green.
He skated more than 25 minutes for the second straight game. It was the first time he did that since Games
71 and 72 last season.

-- Braden Holtby played perhaps his most solid game of the
young season. He was not severely tested
over long stretches, but he made the stops he had to make when he needed to
make them. The goal he allowed might
have been a bit of bad luck as Viktor Svedberg’s initial shot was blocked by
T.J. Oshie, but the puck dribbled past Oshie’s leg, allowing Svedberg to step
around and get another whack at it.

-- The game within a game…no two players faced off more
against one another in this game than Jay Beagle against Jonathan Toews. Both are accomplished performers in the
circle. They took 12 draws against one
another, splitting them right down the middle at six apiece.

In the end…

Sure, the Blackhawks played the night before (and it showed
in the third period), and they put their backup goalie out there. Still, the Caps shut the big guns down. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews had but one
shot on goal apiece. If Viktor Svedberg
is getting almost a fifth of the shot attempts (10 of 55), it is probably good
defense being applied in other places.

What is perhaps the best takeaway from this game is the
business-like effort. The Caps went out
to play a solid game in all three zones and did precisely that. This, Caps fans, is what “sticking to the
script” is going to look like. Don’t get
too “down” over a loss like Tuesday night’s shutout. Go out and do your job the next night. They did their job well in this one.

WE INTERRUPT OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

The Washington Capitals ended the 2016-2017 as one of 12 franchises in the NHL never to win a Stanley Cup. Of that group, only the St. Louis Blues (48 seasons), Buffalo Sabres (45 seasons), and Vancouver Canucks (45 seasons) have gone longer never having won a Cup than the Capitals (41 seasons). Six teams came into the league after the Capitals entered the league in 1974-1975 and have won Stanley Cups: Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils (1976-1977), Edmonton Oilers (1979-1980), Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche (1979-1980), Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes (1979-1980), Tampa Bay Lightning (1992-1993), and the Anaheim Ducks (1993-1994).

The other stuff

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